Weathered Love

A romance chapter story

Chapter 1

The climb was long and wearing but Catherine Adams persisted. She ran a hand through her shorn perspiration soaked blond hair and narrowed her equally golden eyes at the peak she was making for.
Athletic built, with a somewhat flat chest that contrasted greatly with her wide child-raring-hips, Cat, as she was better known, had a hard time being taken seriously as a woman. Her tomboyish
ways didn’t help. Her desire to push at the physical extremes didn’t award her any brownie points on that regard either and tonight, especially, she needed those points.

She would be attending the party to honour the return of Dash Whinthorp, the most eligible bachelor this side of the Gold Coast. A playground to the rich and famous, it was rather odd their own
local billionaire chose to abscond himself to parts unknown the globe over only to pop back to ferry his family out of social and financial ruin time and again. Born to the aristocratic
Whinthorps that had a linage that belonged to the peerage back in age old England, Dash stepped out of his family’s limelight to carve out a future of his own.

A geeky nerd with a mega brain, it had been unsurprising he would venture out into the world in pursuit of all things tech. His start-up had rocked the global markets, raking in billions for the
drones of his creation. But what had been really shocking was the sight of the skinny geeky dude morphing into a savvy business tycoon and a brawny bulked-up one at that. His nerdy bi-focals were
gone to be replaced with Lasik induced perfect visions. He returned to Surfer’s Paradise as a God amongst men.

Who’d known behind his thick lenses was a set of the most intensely piercing blue eyes?

Cat had surely been oblivious to the allure packed within his slight frame in all the years she’d known him back in their teens. They had gone to the same school together. While he had reigned in
the labs and maths clubs, she had ruled the tracks. Their paths had rarely crossed saved for that one time… Prom Night… when he had rushed to her rescue from her over eager and fumbling footy
captain. He’d suffered a knock-out blow for his efforts and simultaneously won her heart for life. It was what made her so anxious at the thought of seeing him that night. The nervousness of her
feelings for him had kept her away and out of sight in all his past returns home but tonight was unavoidable. He would be there and more importantly, she would be too. The invitation in her name
had been hard to ignore. She should have known accepting employment with the Whinthorps was bound to throw her in his presence at some point.

But the night was still hours away, for not, the challenge of this morning couldn’t have gone unattended. The boys had been more annoyingly provocative than was usual but it wouldn’t have taken
even that much to set her hiking up the nearest terrain. Nerves was enough to send her bounding for the unknown but she knew she could not keep running from her feelings. The past six years doing
just that had been ludicrous. She was a grown woman not an easily impressed kid of eighteen. Shying away from men ever since, out of some misinformed-blown-out-of-proportion infatuation with a
scrawny geek who was no longer even that, was beyond ridiculous. She more than anyone knew that life was meant to be lived and if that meant going to that blasted party tonight and facing her
demons then she would do it. She would set aside her nerves, don on the best dress she had, step into her borrowed heels and attend that party just so she could stare Dash Whinthorp in his
incredibly blue eyes and tell herself- she was over him.

A crush only went so far. An infatuation possibly a little longer. An obsession was clearly unhealthy and she might have bordered on the fringes of that for a little too long to be considered
mentally healthy for her own good. It was time to cut-the-ties. It was time to shuck aside the past and move on.

With the last leaping bound, Cat made it to the top. A victory cry and a jiggly dance later and she was off to the tedious task of retracing her path back to level zero. This could also be a
metaphor of what was to come. It was certainly the reason this would be the very last time she let her sister Jenny’s twelve year old twin boys goad her into anything.

Really? What was she… a kid or something?

To be continued….

CHAPTER 2

The crowd of people was suffocating but Cat had a job to do. Clad in a skin tone silky ensemble she tittered on nude stiletto heels, as she weaved her way through the throng of
people.

They had really outdone themselves with this bash. With the number of turnout to the event, one would think it was a celebrity occasion and not just marking the return of a billionaire son.

Cat tried not to think about that as she continued to weave her way through the crowd pausing every so often to check on things along the way.

"Great do Cat! You've outdone yourself! " Complimented Mrs Cotby as she manuevered her way past the older lady.

"Well done, Cat!"

Cat started to hear others echoe own sentiments. Only it appeared it was not the Whinthorps that were on the receiving end of the compliments flung back at her- it was her. It still took some
getting used to. Three years in events management and she had still to see herself as the one who made things happen. Possibly because she saw none of herself in the outlandish events she
arranged. They reflected only her clients and their needs not her own wishes and desires. And that is how it should be.

Making her way through the throng of guests, she checked her watch for the umpteenth time. What was the holdup? Dash ought to have been here by now. His flight had landed ages ago. The drive from
the airport was surely not that long. And she'd sent the limo. Arranged for it herself. Bess the driver was a friend of hers. The hot blond ran her own limo agency. But then perhaps that was the
problem right there. Pair off a got blond limo driver with a famed playboy billionaire and you had all the makings of hot sex in a car seat right there. It spelt a recipe for disaster for any
event coordinator. An extremely jealous one was no different.

If only she'd driven him here herself. If only she could get within two feet of him without stuttering like an idiot.

But the man was so incrediblybeautiful. Those sapphire eyes no longer hidden behind the lenses of thick glasses had an undeniable appeal. He entranced from even the covers of magazines. She
couldn't imagine the impact of seeing him face to face.

Not that it would matter to him one bit. Cat Adams didn't so much as pinge on his radar.

Just then the shout she had been longing for and dreading at the same time rang out in her ear.

"He's here. The limo has arrived. "

"Copy that, Sam. Thank you," she murmured quietly into her earpiece. Smiling at the guests at random, Cat knew it was time. Time to inch her way out back and make her grand escape. It was
ridiculous she still felt this way. Eight long years and she'd built one chance encounter to a magnitude in her fanciful brain that held her captive to herown imagination. When would she break
free?

Perhaps she should just resist the urge to flee. Just this once and see for herself, that the man was just that - a man.